the thing is. if shane and jack got to know each other, i genuinely think they’d be such good friends. able to sit and talk about nothing but hockey for hours. able to have deeper conversations about hockey culture and how it’s affected them.
HOWEVER. with both of them being in the 2009 draft year. and with all four of them (shane, ilya, jack, and kent) being #1 draft pick prospects, but jack suddenly drops out and now shane can’t stop thinking about whether he would’ve been the #3 draft pick if jack had been there. jack was a hockey nepo baby who’s dad is a legend in hockey, but was specifically won the stanley cup for montreal - he would be convinced that montreal definitely would’ve wanted jack over him. and tbh he probably would’ve been right. and he resents jack for this, especially since the draft pick jack was paired with was his best friend, while shane was made into rivals with ilya. that resentment would grow as he falls in love with ilya too, bc maybe if jack had stuck around, he wouldn’t be stuck as ilya’s rival. he loves playing against ilya, but he hates the expectations on him.
meanwhile, jack looks at shane and resents him because thats who he could’ve been. captain of montreal from a young age, winning cups left and right. by the time he joins the falcs though, he’s calmed down. he’s doing better. maybe he can be friends with shane even.
BUT. BUT. SHANE SEES JACK KISS BITTY AFTER WINNING THE STANLEY CUP IN 2018 (pushed back a year so skip can still have their kiss first) AND HIS HATRED GROWS EVEN MORE. BECAUSE HE CANT JUST BE WITH ILYA YET.
shane, watching the kiss, seething with jealousy: oh. oh i want him dead.
ilya: you were so happy when old man hunter kissed his smoothie man though?
shane: this is different. i need jack zimmermann dead.